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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| The Arab world is a house with no roof |
| 2016-01-03 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Generations after political emancipation from direct colonial rule and overt western influence, the quest for genuine political independence, democratization and cultural authenticity in many majority Arab states is still unfulfilled. The abject failures of decades of experimentation with controlled liberalization, Arab and local nationalisms, and Arab socialism in the 1950's and 60's and with Political Islam in its various forms since the 1967 defeat in the war with Israel, were shockingly confirmed by the Arab uprisings of recent years. The end of colonial rule was the beginning of the era of strong men, usually lower ranking military officers (Nasser in Egypt, Qadaffy in Libya), and the rise of repressive, chauvinistic nationalisms (especially the Baath in Syria and Iraq). The Islamist movements, beginning with the oldest one, the Moslem Brüderbund (established in Egypt in 1928) and the movements it spawned in subsequent decades shared the same illiberal characteristics of the Arab Nationalists and Socialists. In fact illiberal governance is the thread that connects that amorphous universe we call the Arab world. Illiberalism |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 Nietzsche is dead. GOD warned the House of Saud long ago. FU House of Saud. You wasted your 6 days. |
| Posted by: newc 2016-01-03 22:29 |
| #11 The mistake starts by calling it Arab World They conquered it, Lionel Thoth9784, and imposed their language, culture, and religion on the native peoples, so it's named after them. We conquered the majority of North America, though considerably less viciously, so we call it The United States of America. Everybody who lives here is part of that, regardless what they might have been before they came here. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-01-03 17:20 |
| #10 Sandy and shitty...cat box. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2016-01-03 15:27 |
| #9 Arab Unity! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2016-01-03 14:11 |
| #8 I'd like to teach the world to scream and whack it in the knees. Blow up apple trees, poison honey bees and other holy stuff. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2016-01-03 14:08 |
| #7 The mistake starts by calling it Arab World when there are dozen of different Peoples there. Yes, you're right. It's should be called "One Huge Multicultural, Up With People Clusterf**k." |
| Posted by: Pappy 2016-01-03 09:39 |
| #6 democratization and cultural authenticity Mutually exclusive and contradictory, so of course they are unfulfilled. The problems are well defined by the 'burg often. Moslems can't have individualism and Islam any more than they can have freedom and slavery together. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2016-01-03 09:06 |
| #5 habit --> habitat |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-01-03 03:47 |
| #4 The mistake starts by calling it Arab World Overflowing toxic waste dump? Snake-pit? A habit of the only eusocial primates? A place I would most like to nuke? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-01-03 03:45 |
| #3 Latrine or open dumpster would have been the first metaphors to my mind. I guess they had to class it up to get it taken seriously by thinking people. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2016-01-03 01:32 |
| #2 The mistake starts by calling it Arab World when there are dozen of different Peoples there. |
| Posted by: Lionel Thoth9784 2016-01-03 01:20 |
| #1 "...The German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who had strong negative views of Judaism and Christianity and contradictory views of Islam, nonetheless made a striking comment about the 'wonderful world of the Moorish culture of Spain', and he found it admirable that Islam 'said Yes to life even with the rare and refined luxuries of Moorish life.' From this perspective, there is no greatness is asceticism, or in fake religious puritanism or in fear of the material world. Yes to life." Nietzche was impressed with how he thought the high culture of 11th and 12th century Cordova enjoyed the luxuries without worrying about compliance with religious dos and don'ts. I think Al Arabiya doesn't understand that. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2016-01-03 00:48 |